


Last Wish

by Rei382



Series: RoyEd Month 2020 [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Because kitties are important, Character death - NOT Ed or Roy, Growing Old Together, M/M, Mild Angst, background Al/Win, kitties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:01:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23961994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rei382/pseuds/Rei382
Summary: Al had lived full and happy life. Ed knew it, and it helped him hold himself together.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric/Winry Rockbell, Edward Elric/Roy Mustang
Series: RoyEd Month 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726801
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39
Collections: RoyEd month





	Last Wish

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the second RoyEd month prompt, Al dies.

Ed held Roy’s hand, only partially for support, as they looked down at the three cats resting, sprawled, on the ground in front of the tombstone. He felt Roy’s hand, dry and wrinkled but still warm and comforting, closing on his.

“He would’ve liked it, wouldn’t he?” Ed asked. His voice trembled, but only a little bit.

“I am sure he would’ve loved it,” Roy replied softly.

Ed moved his eyes from the ground, still fresh from last week’s planting, up over the stone which bore his brother’s name, and sideways to Roy. His hair was grey and his face full of wrinkles, but he was as handsome as he was the day Ed returned to Central and ran into him by accident. He smiled at him. It was a sad smile.

“That’s what he wanted. Left it in his will.”

“Not surprising at all,” Roy said, mirroring Ed’s sad smile. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be here for the funeral.”

Ed shook his head and gave Roy’s hand a gentle squeeze. “It’s fine. I know that it was important that you’d attend the ceremony. Why they won’t let you go even twenty years after you’ve retired, that I don’t know, but…” he shrugged.

“I know. And I appreciate it.” There was a short pause. “Who planted it?”

Ed looked at the cats again, and the catnip that decorated the area in front of Al’s tomb. “James, Oscar and Erica.”

“They’re good kids, all of them,” Roy’s fingers moved over the back of Ed’s hand, which was almost as wrinkled as Roy’s. He knew why he was doing that. A part of him was always regretful that he could not give Ed kids, even though Ed himself felt perfectly fine about that. He’d come to terms with it when he’d realized his preferences lay with men, rather than women, and then when he and Roy started getting serious, he knew that with Roy’s career children just did not make any sense. So he enjoyed Al’s children, and played with his nephew and niece as often as he could. Al’s three grandchildren called him and Roy their third pair of grandpa and grandpa. That was good enough for him, even now, when even if he wanted to and Roy wanted to, it was way too late for them.

They stood there in silence for a few more minutes. As one grows old, one doesn’t mind the silence as much anymore, Ed realized. He enjoyed Roy’s company, drew comfort from it even when he stood in front of his little brother’s grave. But Al lived full life. After he got his body back, he traveled, and experienced, and then found the love of his life and settled down to have children. If Al thought that his death at the age of seventy-six would make Ed bawl his eyes out he’d climb out of his grave and smack him in the head.

Ed smiled at the thought.

The graveyard was getting darker, hues of pink and orange coloring the tombstones as the sun was setting in the west. It was time for them to go back to the house Ed still thought of as Winry’s, even after fifty years that she shared it with Al.

“Shall we go back? I have a feeling that if we stay here much longer, Winry will pull a Pinako at us and hit us with her walking stick.”

“If she tries to, you can always hit her with yours.”

Ed laughed, and then turned slowly, making sure to keep his walking stick stable on the uneven ground. Roy turned with him, supporting him, even though he was equally slow.

“And I will.”


End file.
